Monday, June 18, 2012

Father's Day Outings

Happy Father's Day and Hello Summer!

Helpful dads hold your kite.

A Father's Day tradition is forming for us. It seems to have taken a while since the kids are 16 and 11, but since we've come to MA, we head out to gorgeous, nearby nature spots each year. Last year we visited World's End, and this year, Crane Beach. Both are properties of the Trustees of Reservations, a wonderful group that preserves historical and natural places around the state.

Doug, looking very cool with those glasses

They certainly look like Dad and son.

I bet great brothers become great dads.

The afternoon celebration began at Woodman's, a famous clam shack (In fact, their founder invented fried clams!). The line for their steamed lobsters, fried clams and fish, corn and chowder spreads down the road even though there are many other nearby restaurants featuring fish that have no lines. Is it that everyone likes the outdoor dining on those great red and white checked picnic tables by the marsh? Is it the ice cream shack selling Gifford's terrific ice cream on the property? Is it the relatively low prices for great food in a relaxed atmosphere? I like all those things, but I can't compare it to them to the other local restaurants because I haven't been in them. Rather we join the line, lasting about an hour, for Woodman's. Does the line create the demand... or the demand create the line?

Filled with our delicious lobster, fish, corn, and the greatest onion rings... we head for the beach. We arrive as most people are leaving or have gone to dinner. The sand is cooling, the sun's strength is waning, and warmed water fills the tide pools. For me, late afternoon is the best time to hit the beach. When is your favorite time to go to the beach? What is your favorite beach?

I read your comment on Rhonda's Down to Earth blog and just wanted to say that I feel very much as you do. I'm probably just a little bit older than you but saving everything I can to move somewhere out of the city but not too far away from our family and grandkids. My husband has asthma and the doctor has recommended that we move for the sake of his health. This week the doctor has said that I may have developed allergic asthma now too. But we give up a lot of the 'fun' things to save the money for moving. I stayed home to raise the kids and only went out to work part-time after the youngest became a teenager. For the last 10 years I've been working full-time and saving every penny possible. We don't want to move with a huge mortgage although a small one might be workable. We just can't afford to buy a property with a decent sized garden or a paddock so that we can continue to grow our own food as far as possible - at least not within a few miles of our family. Somebody sat down with me recently and said that they were worried that we were giving up too many things because we were saving for that elusive future. What if one of us died tomorrow and the other was left? It has given me pause for thought. This is why we decided not to move with a large mortgage (apart from not wanting to pay all that money to the bank!) because whoever was left would have to sell up and move back to the cheaper houses in the city as they would be unable to pay the mortgage. We do try to live as simply as possible, from an environmental point of view as we want to be good stewards of what God has given us, as well as not paying out money needlessly.

Nobody seemed to have replied to your point on Rhonda's blog so I just wanted to say that I have some understanding and fellow feeling.

Thank you all for your comments. Nice to visit new blogs and revisit those who've commented before. Tiffany, hope all is going well. Sounds like perhaps you don't get sunburns. I try to stay out of the sun in the middle of the day. Jo, thanks for your comment. It's difficult to find this balance. But although we do fewer trip and dinners out than I'd like. I have become a great cook and our family almost always eats together. We do take occasional special local trips and really appreciate them. There are great times in the everyday as well. Wishing you and your husband good health and lots of fun the the grandkids.

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"Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do."

Wendell Berry

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Alanis Obomsawin, Native American of the Abenaki Tribe, north of Montreal